1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to methods of monitoring the quality of a communications channel.
2. Related Art
Communications systems can have backend data storage mechanisms of various configurations. For example, in a direct-attached storage configuration, a server is directly connected to a data storage device. The server is connected with one or more clients on a Local Area Network (LAN) and controls client access to the data storage device. In a network-attached storage configuration, one or more servers are connected with one or more clients on a LAN. The servers interface with a control device, which regulates access to one or more data storage devices. The control device typically performs intelligent processing in order to connect data storage devices onto various server paths.
The performance of communications networks typically degrades over time between system calibrations. A problem with control devices of typical network-attached data storage configurations is they provide minimal, if any, communications channel quality monitoring. What is needed, therefore, is a method of monitoring communications channel quality, particularly in communications systems having a network-attached data storage configuration.